It’s a well understood fact that platform security is an integral part of the security of complex systems. For mobile devices, this statement rings even truer; modern mobile platforms include multiple processing units, all elaborately communicating with one another. While the code running on the application processor (AP) has been the subject of much research, other components have seldom received the same scrutiny.

Over the years, as a result of the focused attention by security folk, the defenses of code running on the application processor have been reinforced. Taking Android as a case study, this includes hardening the operating system, improving the security of applications, and introducing incremental security enhancements affecting the entire system. All positive improvements, no doubt. However, attackers tend to follow the path of least resistance. Improving the security of one component will inevitably cause some attackers to start looking elsewhere for an easier point of entry.